<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Bloom of the Black Rose by sk_knightmare (yuri_acolyte)</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24364840">Bloom of the Black Rose</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuri_acolyte/pseuds/sk_knightmare'>sk_knightmare (yuri_acolyte)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>League of Legends</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 10:34:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,665</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24364840</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuri_acolyte/pseuds/sk_knightmare</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
      <p>This is my first attempt at a fanfiction ever, so any and all constructive feedback is welcome. Also please bear with me as I learn AO3's tagging system and norms. League of Legends lore has always fascinated me. It's far from perfect but being video game lore, it is by nature incomplete and open-ended as to where the story goes next. It therefore felt like fertile ground for me to expand upon its universe. This particular work is going to start Cassiopeia-centered, mostly because she was one of the few champions I was halfway decent with when I last played and her story seems to have been left sparse by Riot. Additional characters (and respective tags) will be added as I go along and if the larger story plan I have in mind actually pans out. I currently only have large arcs for characters somewhat planned out so this story is likely to evolve as it moves along.</p>
    </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cassiopeia Du Couteau/Azir, Cassiopeia Du Couteau/Sivir, Cassiopeia Du Couteau/Talon Du Couteau</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Bloom of the Black Rose</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is my first attempt at a fanfiction ever, so any and all constructive feedback is welcome. Also please bear with me as I learn AO3's tagging system and norms. League of Legends lore has always fascinated me. It's far from perfect but being video game lore, it is by nature incomplete and open-ended as to where the story goes next. It therefore felt like fertile ground for me to expand upon its universe. This particular work is going to start Cassiopeia-centered, mostly because she was one of the few champions I was halfway decent with when I last played and her story seems to have been left sparse by Riot. Additional characters (and respective tags) will be added as I go along and if the larger story plan I have in mind actually pans out. I currently only have large arcs for characters somewhat planned out so this story is likely to evolve as it moves along.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>            She had long since moved past her days of sorrow after her initial transformation when she mourned the loss of her old body and with it, her old aristocratic lifestyle. But desperation and shock had only melted into self-loathing and mellow sorrow. Before her expedition to Shurima, Cassiopeia had men practically falling over themselves to spend a night with her. As she languished in her private bedroom chamber as night fell outside, she knew that no man would be able to stare at her again without revulsion. She had spent the last two weeks secluded in here, wallowing in self-loathing and pity.</p><p>            A knock at the door shook Cassiopeia out of her reverie.</p><p>            “Go away,” Cassiopeia hissed. She did not want one of her handmaidens running away in fear from her again.</p><p>            “It’s me,” said a familiar female voice. It was her mother. Before she could respond, her mother said, “I’m letting myself in.”</p><p>            Soreana du Couteau entered the room. While Katarina took after their father with her red hair and warrior-assassin’s body, Cassiopeia had been the spitting image of their mother with her luscious gold-blonde hair and hourglass figure. Even after the cursed transformation, Cassiopeia’s human half still retained her smooth tanned skin, voluptuous breasts, and seductive curves.</p><p>            “You can’t stay in here forever,” her mother said. Upon hearing these words, Cassiopeia swelled with irrational anger.</p><p>            “You…you…you don’t know what it’s like to…to…” she muttered.</p><p>            “What to look like a snake?” Soreana said bluntly. Even though she had only been wallowing in self-loathing for weeks, Cassiopeia had not expected the words to come out so harshly out of another person’s mouth, much less her mother’s. To her shock and horror, tears began streaming down her cheeks. The curse had transformed her physically, but it also took its toll on the psyche by reducing the former seductress to this crying vulnerable shell of her former self.</p><p>            “I just…I just wanted to help,” sniffed Cassiopeia, “Katarina’s out with father and I…”</p><p>            “And you just wanted to make your contribution to our cause,” Soreana said. She sat down next to Cassiopeia on the bed and placed her hand on Cassiopeia’s shoulder. Cassiopeia initially flinched at the contact, the first real human contact she had had in weeks. Soreanna slowly turned her daughter around to look at her face on, but Cassiopeia continued to avoid eye contact, choosing to be more interested in her clawed hands on the bed sheets.</p><p>            “Sweetheart, look at me,” Soreanna said softly. She placed her hand under Cassiopeia’s chin and gently tilted her face up. Soreanna caressed her daughter’s face gently and wiped off the tears from her cheek. “You didn’t deserve this, no matter what you did.”</p><p>            “But I did,” said Cassiopeia, “I betrayed the people who…”</p><p>            “And I’m sorry,” said Soreanna, which quieted Cassiopeia who rarely ever saw her regal mother apologize, “I’m sorry I sent you into that forsaken place to end up having you suffer like this.”</p><p>            Cassiopeia was only able to sit in stunned silence as her mother fell quiet. Her mother sighed as she lowered her hand again.</p><p>            “It doesn’t matter to me what you look like,” Soreanna said, “You’re still my daughter. What’s more, you helped me and the Black Rose. I cannot forsake you now. We can’t forsake you now.”</p><p>            Soreanna pressed a small waxen sigil of the Black Rose into Cassiopeia’s palm. It was a sigil seen by very few eyes throughout the entire history of the order.</p><p>            “After that wretch poisoned me, I don’t have the energy or ability to carry on my duties to the Black Rose,” Soreanna said, “You have to take my place and help complete our vision. Especially after your father betrayed us and supported that brute Swain’s coup to take over Noxus.”</p><p>            Cassiopeia closed her fingers around the sigil in her palm. She was done now with wallowing in self-despair in her bedroom all day. Even though she had been hideously transformed, it didn’t mean she was unable to continue her service to the Black Rose and more importantly she now wanted to prove that she could live up to the Du Couteau name.</p><p>            Soreanna smiled softly at her daughter, a rare moment of intimacy in the Du Couteau family where strength had always been prized, something Katarina had always excelled at thereby earning the approval of their father. Cassiopeia had never been good with a blade which meant that she never enjoyed the affection of Marcus to the same extent. Cassiopeia had turned to her mother as she entered adulthood and before her venture to Shurima, thought she was going to follow in her footsteps in politics and the high society of Noxus.</p><p>            Now she would have to move forward in a different way. Not just for the Black Rose but for herself as well. She was no longer going to spend her days wasting away in her bedroom while cutthroats and brutes were running Noxus.</p><p>------------------------------</p><p>            After Soreanna left, Cassiopeia dozed off. She had never been someone who had very vivid dreams (her father in particular had always dismissed dreams as nothing but unspoken fancies meant to be forgotten in favor of the real), but this night was different.</p><p>            She was in a dimly lit underground tunnel with light filtering in from random cracks in the ceiling, a tunnel similar to the underground tomb that she had ventured into with Sivir and her mercenaries. This was somewhere in Shurima. Cassiopeia looked down and saw that she still had a serpent’s tail starting where her hips ended. Even in her dreams, it seemed she could not escape her curse.</p><p>            On the ground, dozens of small regular snakes slithered on the ground all heading toward the end of the corridor. They all seemed to be moving in unison in one direction. Snakes aren’t supposed to act like that Cassiopeia thought. Perhaps against her better judgement, she slithered down the corridor attempting to see what lay at the end of it.</p><p>            The snakes stopped before what looked like a massive vault door at the end of the corridor with a door easily at least four times Cassiopeia’s height. Two massive stone serpent reliefs were carved into the sides of the vault door with their heads forming an arch. At the top another snake head veered down at her with bright rubies where its eyes would have been if it were alive. As she looked up into them, they flashed brightly almost as if the stone head were about to come alive.</p><p>            And the vault door began to open.    </p><p>            The chamber inside was even more dimly lit than the preceding corridor and Cassiopeia couldn’t make out much of what was inside. Under normal circumstances, she never would have entered an ominous chamber like this (she had far too much sense and besides, that kind of bravado was reserved for the lackeys she would have hired like Sivir).</p><p>            But being a dream, she found herself unable to resist the urge to move into the unknown chamber. She couldn’t quite place the feeling but it felt as if though something inside was beckoning her in. As she slithered into the chamber, she could faintly hear a slight movement of something large moving all around her. But the light was so dim that she could barely make out anything. As she twisted around to try to locate the source of the noise, she could make out the brief outline of a massive hulk moving around the room, slowly. She might have been tense except it was moving too slowly and not toward her, indicating it had no interest in attacking her, for now.</p><p>            As she continued to turn, a sudden pair of bright yellow eyes emerged from the darkness. They were not unlike her own after she had transformed with the narrow pupils reminiscent of snakes. Cassiopeia felt her entire body seize up and suddenly unable to move any part of her body. But perhaps what was more alarming was the hulk that had been moving around her in the chamber. As she froze up, a massive serpent’s tail, a part of a serpent body clearly long enough to circle the chamber multiple times and wider than her entire body, coiled around her and held her in place.</p><p>            All of a sudden, a disembodied voice came out from where she had seen the eyes before and a high raspy human woman’s voice rang out.</p><p>            “My child…,” the voice rasped, “After thousands of years, someone has finally emerged out of that horrible tomb capable of carrying on our legacy.”</p><p>            It sounded like the voice of an incredibly old woman but Cassiopeia still could not make out anything in the dark.</p><p>            “Come find me in Shurima…” the voice hissed, “And untold power will be at your disposal…if you can bear it….”</p><p>            As the coils began to loosen, the dream began to dissolve and Cassiopeia woke up with a cold sweat as dawn began to break in Urzeris.</p><p>            “What was that,” she muttered to herself.</p><p>            She had vivid dreams before but this felt like it was more than just an ordinary dream. It had all felt so real and even now she could recall the feeling of slithering over the sand and flagstones in that mysterious chamber. Her inner skeptic protested that it had just been the unconscious manifestation of what she had obsessed over for the better part of a year when her mother first tasked her to find the hidden powers of Shurima. But it had also been that skeptic that emboldened her to believe that the magic within the tomb she had raided in Shurima with Sivir and her mercenaries couldn’t harm her.</p><p>            And now look where she was now. Underestimating Shurima’s magic had cost her appearance and her old lifestyle. To dismiss this so casually so soon after would be folly. She just didn’t know how a dream was supposed to help her know what to do next.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>